Michael Cera Braves Cult-Favorite Role in Youth in Revolt

SAN FRANCISCO — Youth in Revolt star Michael Cera looks older than the sex-starved 16-year-old he plays in the adaptation of C.D. Payne’s classic novel. The wry, almost-lanky actor is confident and taller than you’d expect. He certainly doesn’t look like a “Guido” from Jersey Shore.

To promote Friday’s release of Youth in Revolt, Cera insisted that MTV set him up with Shore‘s cast of gauche party cretins for a makeover, Sicilian-style. If Cera’s brand new hairdo (courtesy of DJ Pauly D) and a hop in the hot tub with spray-tan hotties doesn’t send the masses flocking to the box office this weekend, nothing will.

For all its cringe-worthy hair catastrophes, Cera’s perfect composure during the publicity stunt (video at right) illustrates his potent presence as an actor.

It’s a role the 21-year-old is just growing into this year, as he portrays two cult characters on the big screen.

Youth in Revolt delivers more or less what the movie’s trailer promises: a witty vehicle for Cera to play a horny, awkward teenager. He’s played the role in one form or another since he broke out as the emotionally stifled George Michael Bluth on Arrested Development in 2003.

But Youth in Revolt, more than Superbad, Juno or any other film Cera has done, is an ambitious undertaking: Nick Twisp, the story’s narrator and main character, wasn’t originally written for a 90-minute format.

“It’s just different, because the book is written as a journal, so you are in his mind and you get a better sense of who the guy is than you do when you are reading a script,” Cera told Wired.com over coffee in San Francisco. The actor has just arrived on a delayed plane and wears faint facial hair like a teen trying to look older. “If anything, it was definitely helpful to have the book to refer to when making the movie, because it’s 500 pages that really give you an insight on the part you are playing.”

Cera first considered playing Nick Twisp when he read Payne’s novel at 16. The film took years to materialize, and Nick had to be aged from 14 to 16 to fit Cera’s more grown-up appearance. But the pretentious character stays more or less the same: a sophomoric pedant with neglectful parents (played by Steve Buscemi and Jean Smart) who falls for the tantalizing Sheenie Saunders (Portia Doubleday).

Sheenie wants a man to take charge, and Nick — the epitome of a geeky, blue-balled teen who couldn’t get laid if his life depended on it — creates the “supplementary persona” of Francois Dillinger, a precocious badass who deceives and destroys in the name of love.

His most challenging role to date, Nick Twisp is an apropos introduction to Cera as a skilled and nuanced actor. It’s not Will Farrell typecast syndrome. Playing the hard-boiled Francois Dillinger alter ego is a departure, proving that Cera is more than a one-trick pony.

But even sheltered Nick Twisp, while not exactly Holden Caulfield, is a tough character to portray. No matter how deftly he plays the part, Cera faces the collective groan emitted by die-hard fans who think their mental image of Twisp has been bastardized.

The flip side is that Cera might popularize the book for a whole new audience.

“Yeah, I’ve been there,” Cera says of protective fans. “I’m a huge fan of this book and of other books that have been made into movies, and I know that feeling. But the book will always be there. I think if you are a fan of the book and you aren’t a fan of the movie, that’s fair enough…. I put a lot of pressure on myself, but there’s not too much external pressure, I think. You could go crazy involving yourself in that, because there’s bound to be someone who is unhappy for it.”

Cera claims to be a fanboy, but when asked to name other sympathetic characters he identifies with, the actor stutters and jokes about Bart Simpson and Peter Venkman. As a comedy actor, these choices make sense. Behind the artless facade and wit, though, there’s more sophistication than Cera’s smooth skin implies.

“I guess I never answered your question before,” he says, taking a last swig from his coffee. “Have you read Ask the Dust? It was written in the ’30s by John Fante.” Cera doesn’t mention that the book was adapted into a crappy Collin Farrell movie in 2006.

“There’s this character who’s really relatable,” he says. “Arturo Bandini. He’s really self-deprecating…. He’s mean to people and has a lot of pride. You should check it out.”